Sign Of The Times

In an era that valued style over substance, Queensrÿche emerged as a contrary force to the happy-go-lucky sounds of hard rock in the late-’80s and early-’90s. In hindsight, one might even go so far as to say that the band succeeded despite themselves. Whether knowingly or not, they zigged when the industry zagged, progressed while the scene regressed, and offered provocation while others opted for escapism.

There’s a subtle irony, then, that their best-of collection is called Sign Of The Times.

Musically, nothing Queensrÿche ever did was indicative of the times. Instead, the five high-school friends from the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, WA, offered a progressive blend of guitar-driven mechanics and artistically-minded dynamics.

Early offerings Queen Of The Reich, The Lady Wore Black and The Warning suggested a band with an affinity for European power metal, frontman Geoff Tate’s vocals towering atop the searing guitar tandem of Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton. “Take Hold Of The Flame” didn’t stray from that foundation, building on the band’s epic core as drummer Scott Rockenfeld and bassist Eddie Jackson forged a rhythmic ebb and flow that only heightened the band’s bloodlust for metallic hooks and melodic rapture.

While the release of Rage For Order in 1986 didn’t create the groundswell of 1988’s ensuing Operation: Mindcrime, it served just as lofty a purpose in the band’s history, expanding the scope of its metallic roots with a more futuristic vision, cutting-edge approach and visceral lyrical underbelly. Until Rage, the band had been content to “Walk In The Shadows” of popular culture, as the song suggests. With Mindcrime, they not only escaped the shadows for the spotlight, but challenged the mainstream with an album that sent shockwaves through heavy music.

By all accounts, the release had the potential to be a cumbersome concept album from a power metal band with artistic streaks as dark and glistening as the rain-soaked Seattle streets. Instead, it proved to be a jarring mission statement from a band that graduated from the black leather underground to the arena rock mainstream. Most remarkably, it was done without compromise.

Independent of the album’s concept, tracks like “I Don’t Believe In Love” and “Eyes Of A Stranger” were stand-alone rock hits, speaking to a public at the radio level, while fitting in masterfully in the context of the Operation: Mindcrime plotline, which tackled the mechanics of social, religious and political alienation and manipulation. Despite concerns that the album might fall on deaf ears, its success proved pivotal to the future of Queensrÿche. They had broken free of the musical and lyrical ties that bind hard rock and heavy metal and, in the process, had transformed themselves into one of the genre’s most compelling outfits.

1990, and in the band’s typical fashion it came with their own twist. With power ballads the “Sign Of The Times,” “Silent Lucidity” defied the typical love-torn formula in favor of a lullaby that floated forth on clouds of supple orchestrations. “Jet City Woman” and “Another Rainy Night,” meanwhile, further delivered on the band’s inability to play by the rules, offering up-close-and-personal (while up-tempo) caveats on an album that, despite a title track that spoke to the blind eye and political misgivings of the American government, would attain multi-platinum status and launch Queensrÿche into the ranks of arena-rock headliners.

In a telling indication of just how far ahead of the times Queensrÿche always was, “Promised Land” b-side “Real World,” originally released on the Last Action Hero soundtrack in 1993, reunited the band with acclaimed composer Michael Kamen. They’d repeatedly worked with him since joining forces on Warning, their full-length debut in 1984. Kamen wouldn’t become a household name in metal circles until 2001, via his highly-publicized orchestral album with Metallica (a band Queensrÿche opened for while supporting the Kamen-aided Operation: Mindcrime in the late‘80s).

While the band’s first four albums were released in a six-year span, it took four years to release the follow-up to Empire. But Promised Land proved well worth the wait, offering a sonic whirlwind that built on the band’s epic savvy for constructing a Pink Floyd-like wall of sound, then cloaking it with a tapestry painted by broad strokes of rich color and musical depth. Where “Am I” offered a seismic blast and cryptic lyrical implosion; “Bridge” was an acoustic response to a family member’s bid for redemption.

Again, the point was clear: Whether speaking to the world at large, or addressing the singular forces that immediately surround us all, Queensrÿche delivers with a musical clarity and lyrical focus that play off each other. This is achieved with a timeless reverence that defies mainstream America’s disposable pop aesthetic. That is why, throughout a change in musical, political and social climates, Queensrÿche has sustained.

Even in the past decade, while many of its hard rock and heavy metal peers have succumbed to the nostalgia set, the band has maintained its creative fires, matching their output from the previous decade with four albums of new studio material. Hindsight serves “Sign Of The Times” and “Some People Fly” better than their initial response at the height of the grunge phase, but few could argue that Queensrÿche’s music has proved more timeless than the fleeting fad and fashion that erupted from their Seattle hometown in the mid-’90s.

Like kindred spirits summoned on either side of the new millennium, Q2K bonus track “Until There Was You” plus “All The Promises,” the epic finale of 2006’s Operation: Mindcrime II, harness a majestic grandeur befitting a band that is approaching the 25th anniversary of its debut release.

Why is Queensrÿche as pertinent today as it was nearly a quarter-century ago? Because while too many other bands make the mistake of getting caught in the moment, Queensrÿche has defied the signs of the times, opting instead for a body of work that proves timeless.

–Paul Gargano (May 2007)

#	TITLE	SAMPLE	LYRICS
01.	Queen Of The Reich	Alternative content	SHOW
02.	Warning	Alternative content	SHOW
03.	Walk In The Shadows	Alternative content	SHOW
04.	Take Hold Of The Flame	Alternative content	SHOW
05.	The Lady Wore Black	Alternative content	SHOW
06.	I Don't Believe In Love	Alternative content	SHOW
07.	Eyes Of A Stranger	Alternative content	SHOW
08.	Silent Lucidity	Alternative content	SHOW
09.	Bridge	Alternative content	SHOW
10.	Jet City Woman	Alternative content	SHOW
11.	Another Rainy Night (Without You)	Alternative content	SHOW
12.	Sign Of The Times	Alternative content	SHOW
13.	I Am I	Alternative content	SHOW
14.	Real World	Alternative content	SHOW
15.	Some People Fly	Alternative content	SHOW
16.	Unti There Was You	Alternative content	SHOW
17.	All The Promises	Alternative content	SHOW
18.	Take Hold Of The Flame (Demo)	Alternative content	SHOW
19.	Walk In The Shadows (Demo)	Alternative content	SHOW
20.	Before The Storm (Demo)	Alternative content	SHOW
21.	Waiting For The Kill (Demo)	Alternative content	SHOW
22.	No Sanctuary (Demo)	Alternative content	SHOW
23.	Prophecy	Alternative content	SHOW
24.	I Dream In Infrared (1991 Remix)	Alternative content	SHOW
25.	Dirty Lil Secret	Alternative content	SHOW
26.	Last Time In Paris	Alternative content	SHOW
27.	Scarborough Fair	Alternative content	SHOW
28.	Della Brown (Unplugged)	Alternative content	SHOW
29.	Someone Else? (w/ Full Band)	Alternative content	SHOW
30.	Silent Lucidity (Live)	Alternative content	SHOW
31.	Chasing Blue Sky	Alternative content	SHOW
32.	Justified	Alternative content	SHOW